'Man of Steel' Poster: Really?

Man of Steel, the Zack Snyder reboot of the Superman story, is one of next summer’s biggest question marks. And this new poster raises more questions than it answers. As you’ll see below, this doesn’t suggest Superman punching robots, so much as that Superman is going to be in some hot water. With humans.

Here’s that poster:

What did Superman do? If he’s being arrested for the last two movies, okay, that we understand. But still. So far everything out of this picture has been a bit depressing. The trailers suggested that Clark Kent, née Kal-el (Henry Cavill) goes on a vision quest or something while traveling to forests and on boats, and now he’s getting arrested?

At the time Man of Steelwas being made the dominant paradigm for superhero movies was the Dark Knightmodel, which meant more reality and darkness. That never fit with Superman and his all-American ethos, but it may have been the direction they went with this movie. Now that The Avengershas come out and proved that audiences like rollicking fun (which is more in line from what we want in a Superman movie), perhaps this film will suffer from being too glum. But that was the problem with Superman Returns, which they – hopefully – realized. This makes us curious. But not in a good way.

Damon worked in the film business as a Film Buyer for a theater chain for many years, which gives him an interesting perspective on the numbers. He's written for Collider, Chud, Screencrush, The DVD Journal and Binaryflix online, and was published by The New York Times and Willamette Week, along with his college, high school and middle school papers.